Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated  cities in the world, but with night skies around 1,000 times brighter than globally accepted levels, it gains a bad reputation for its light pollution. A study by Hong Kong University found that brightness levels in the southern Chinese city's popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui were 1,200 times greater than the international dark sky standard. The crowded city of 7 million residents , full or residential high-rises, towering office blocks and neon  advertisements, has no laws to control outdoor lightning. The result is that light pollution is thought to be much worse than in other large cities, including London, Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai. "In Hong Kong , you can't go anywhere outdoor in the evening without your eyes being blinded by this really disturbing outdoor lightning," the light pollution survey's head Jason Pum told AFP. "The fact that we have all this light in the sky means energy is wasted," he said, adding that too much artificial lightning also affects nightly wildlife. Research has suggested that light pollution can cause a number of harmful health effects in humans, including sleeplessness and headaches and can also interrupt body clocks and hormones . The university survey, the result of five million measurements taken from points across the city, was released just days before the start of the annual Earth Hour event, organized by the World Wildlife Fund. People around the world will be encouraged to turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday night to raise awareness of climate change. Last year, a number of Hong Kong's major buildings along Victoria Harbour went dark to mark Earth Hour. "Anyway, we should do our best to reduce the amount of lightning and adjust it for the benefit of the environment." If you walk out at night in Hong Kong, you can see all those things except   _  . A) neon advertisements B) residential buildings C) a dark sky with twinkling stars D) high office blocks
C


Have you ever imagined what human beings will look like in the future? Well, now you don't have to. According to AsapScience, a Canada-based video channel that touches on many different science topics, humans will be very different creatures 1,000 years from now. Artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and climate change will work together to change our bodies greatly, according to a video recently published by the channel. We could, for instance, develop red eyes as our DNA changes, and have darker skin because of global warming. The video painted a picture of a future world in which our bodies are part human, part machine. Nanobots, or tiny robots, will be put into our bodies, improving our abilities. "No longer will we be limited by our own physiology. We will truly become a mixture of biology and machine on the inside," says the video. Meanwhile, designer babies will cause future generations to grow into intelligent, attractive people. As global warming takes hold, humans will also be skinnier and taller, as this body shape deals with heat better. In fact, Cadell Last, a researcher at the Global Brain Institute located in Belgium, believes change may happen even faster than this. As he said in a paper recently published in Current Aging Science, mankind is already going through a major evolutionary change. In less than four decades, Last claims, we will live longer, have children in old age and need artificial intelligence to finish daily tasks. "Your 80 or 100 is going to be so radically different than your grandparents," Last said. Instead of living fast and dying young, he believes humans will live slow and die old. "The biological clock isn't going to be around forever," he added, and said that people could pause it for some time using future technology. Just a few hundred years ago, most humans were working in the fields, while nowadays more and more are getting an education. These are just predictions, and no one can be sure how human beings will evolve in the future. But with such large... Which of the following would Cadell Last probably agree with? A) Future babies will be designed according to their grandparents' wishes. B) Our increasing dependence on artificial intelligence will threaten our survival one day. C) Future technology will pause our biological clocks so that humans live slower and longer. D) In less than four decades, humans will have a sudden genetic change that will make us rely on artificial intelligence.
C


Q: Japanese Students Suffer from Pressure Last April,15-year-old Rei Iwasaki stopped her piano and flute lessons and began to study every day of the week. Her parents paid to send her to a "cram school ."She wanted very much to pass her exams. In February she did pass an all-day, five-subject examination and entered the high school she hoped to enter. Thirteen-year-old Akio Yoshiwara wasn't so lucky. Unable to take the pressure of the exams, he hanged himself in February. He left a suicide  note which said, "I did my best in this dear life, but it's no good." Suicides are now a common part of life among students in Japan. The cause is the incredible pressure of the "examination hell." Even a number of teachers are committing suicide each year. When some students broke windows in a school near Tokyo, the principal blamed himself and wrote the following note: "The incidents were due to the lack of appropriate measures by the principal and I apologize. I am very tired. The Japanese educational system is much different from the American system. It is perhaps the most regimented  school system in any of the industrialized nations. Boys and girls wear uniforms and go to school six days a week --- 240 days a year compared to 180 in the U.S. Ninety- five percent graduate from high school compared to seventy-five percent in the U.S. Students don't ask questions in class but only listen respectfully to the teachers. And every few year's students are tested to see which school they will enter next. There is stiff competition for the "best" schools. The result is a well-informed, disciplined student, ideal for factory and company work and excellent at learning specialized skills. But there is little  fun  in  education,  little  creativity  and  the  incredible pressure  of "examination hell." Which of the following is Wrong? A) The American educational system is much different from the Japanese system. B) To enter a high school, a student must pass an all-day, five-subject examination. C) The Japanese graduates from high school are much less than the American graduates. D) In Japanese education, there is little creativity as well as little fun.
A: C


The computer is fast, and never makes a mistake, while people are too slow, and full of mistakes sometimes. That's what people often say when they talk about computers. For over a quarter of a century, scientists have been making better and better computers. Now a computer can do a lot of everyday jobs wonderfully. It is widely used in factories, hospitals, post offices and airports. A computer can report, decide and control in almost every field. Many computer scientists are now thinking of making the computer "think" like a man. With the help of a person, a computer can draw pictures, write music, talk with people, play chess, recognize voices, translate languages and so on. Perhaps computers will one day really think and feel. Do you think the people will be afraid when they find that the computer is too clever to listen to and serve the people? The passage is written to   _   . A) warn people of the danger of the computer B) tell people about the computer C) tell people about computer scientists D) show how to use the computer

B